Troy: the musical.

I went to Troy: the musical at Circa last night. It was rich and strange and very good. It finishes this weekend so now would be a good time to go if you've been considering it.

My favourite thing was Circe played by Robert Tripe. She's the one who turns Odysseus's crew into pigs. She claims (in a torch song) "Men are pigs, men are pigs, women say they're okay, but we're lying," and then proceeds to back up the claim with more compelling evidence than I've ever heard assembled for it before. I'm still not convinced but she tried. He also did Achilles exactly as I've always thought he was; shallow, pretty, vain, glorious, and yet sincerely in love with Patroclus.

The person I went with who's done Honours in Classics was deeply amused, I think her favourite scene was Clytemnestra hacking Agamemnon to pieces in the bath. Ruth liked the fairly butch Athena.

It was great, and I was reminded again of how good professional actors are at their job. Now I'm wondering how it would work as a school production.

And the moral?
"You can't have it all. Pride comes before a fall. We're all on our own. There's no place like home."